Sandal v Hinckley: Sandal determined to seal promotion spot

Dave Craven

RELIEVED Sandal thankfully have a second chance at securing promotion to National Two North today.

The Wakefield side cruelly missed out on automatic promotion last week after losing their top-of-the-table clash with Sale.

They surrendered a four-try lead to fall 31-22 and see their opponents both win the National Three North title and go up at their expense.

Sandal, however, now host Hinckley from National Three Midlands in a play-off to get the all-important second berth.

Team manager Jim Kilfoyle, who has vast experience having worked with Rotherham Titans in their halcyon days, knows their future is in their own hands one last time.

“Last week was gut-wrenching, but even the people from Sale were saying we should have won,” he said.

“The referee started blowing constantly in the last 20 minutes and we had three players yellow-carded. But we get another chance now and it would end a couple of years of frustration if we could go up.

“Hinckley are a more forwards-orientated team so we can’t let them impose their style on us and we have to play our own game.

“We have the same squad as at Sale and I’d be disappointed if we didn’t win, even more so than last week as we played as well as we could then.”

Kilfoyle admits, if they win, the step up will be sizeable.

But he added: “Speaking to teams already up there, they think we’d be mid-table.

“We’d be playing against sides that are semi-pro while we still are very much amateur.

“But we have a good squad and would look forward to the challenge of facing them all.

“The hard part, though, is actually getting up and that’s what we must achieve by producing our best versus Hinckley.”